I recently interviewed with Pendo, and honestly, it was one of the worst interview experiences I’ve had. I've worked and interviewed at many major tech companies (and still work at one today) known for tough interviews, but Pendo’s process felt like a total waste of time. There was nothing challenging or remotely impressive about it, which really makes me question the caliber of candidates they’re trying to attract.
The recruiter phone screen was standard—questions like “Why Pendo?” and “Tell me about a time you scaled a product?”—nothing noteworthy. They also did not seem technically informed, so the discussion was really just one-sided. Then came the 2.5-hour online assessment (OA), which included the usual LeetCode-style problems (easy/medium). I passed all of those with no issue. But the real frustration came with a raw HTML/CSS task that asked me to create a grid layout with specific properties. Honestly, this was an outdated and unnecessary test of basic front-end knowledge. It was tedious and felt like a complete waste of time for an online assessment, especially considering the simplicity of the task.
I spent 1.5 hours on the coding portion, passing all the test cases, but ultimately submitted sample code for the HTML/CSS task because I didn’t want to waste another full hour writing HTML only to potentially not finish it. After completing the assessment, I reached out to the recruiter in a positive manner, offering to showcase my front-end skills in a future interview, since I had opted out of the HTML task and believed it could be better assessed in real-time. The recruiter responded positively, but then, a day or two later, I received a random call in the middle of my workday (which I stepped out of work for) only to be told they were moving forward with other candidates. The decision to call and not email me to tell me I’m not moving forward is just indicative of how little they care about a candidate’s time.
To add insult to injury, the salary range for the position (specifically the upper band) was actually slightly below what I currently make, despite this being a more senior role than my current position. That definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s hard to take a company seriously when they want to hire you for a more senior position but aren't even willing to match your current salary.
The entire process was poorly designed and misaligned with the role. If Pendo is serious about attracting great talent, their interview process is doing them no favors. The HTML task was far too simplistic for an OA (this was a mid/senior role), and the communication was terrible. I’ve had much better experiences at other companies, and based on this experience, I wouldn’t recommend Pendo’s interview process to anyone—unless you’re really desperate for a job.
If anyone from the company is reading this review, please do better.
